The Eternal War Kasarewang
Harsa vs. The Big Brother (7)

“You know, I don't know what to scold you or praise your deftness.” Said Adi extending her hand. “What are you good?”

“Kak Adi himself how?” harsa asked pointing at Adi's wound on his left abdomen. “Sister Adi got hurt trying to protect me, right?”

“I have to protect you if you still want to face Dad.” Adi said shaking his hand. “After all my wounds heal fast.”

“...” Harsa was silent for a moment before finally asking. “Didn't Adi hate me?”

“Why do you think so?”

“Formerly met, Adi immediately said I ‘aneh’. Then Kak Adi always looks upset because I do not know anything about Kasarewang, and Kak Adi also never respect mama and always call mama's name, never use a respectful call. If not mom, auntie cake. Does your sister not like humans? Or you don't like papa's wedding with my mom?” Following Harsa's feelings, her words came out unstoppably.

Adi was silent for a moment, thinking seriously about Harsa's question. “No. I understand why you want to get married again. I too, after living ten decades on my own, felt like having a partner. Honestly though, I don't understand what it is with a human being. They die fast. How long will your mother live? Five or six at the most. After your mother died, wouldn't you be stuck in the grief of loss again? About you. As I remember the first time we met I didn't say that.”

Harsa. “Huh? Mean what? My mom is healthy! He'll live a long time!” Shouts Harsa does not accept.

Adi. “You don't understand. You know what age Dad is now?”

From the looks of it, papa is aged..“.Fifty? Papa is indeed a few years older than mama anyway.”

“...” Adi shook his head in despair. “Iya about fifty, but fifty decades, not years.”

Fifty decades? Five hundred years? Harsa couldn't just digest that reality. “You mean papa lived through the colonial era?!”

“I don't understand human history, but do you really understand that Kasarewang is an immortal who can do magic?"

Then he recalled Adi's words when he said he had gone through ten decades. Harsa thought it was just an expression. “Kamu.. Kak Adi, how old is Adi's sister?”

“Mid fourteen?”

“Long. I've only been fifteen years.”

“Fourteen decades.” Adi clucking. “To be exact one hundred and forty-five years. Now do you understand? I'm not comfortable calling your mother aunty, not as long as I'm ten decades older than her. Not that I meant to be disrespectful. Then, the first time we met, I didn't say you were weird. The first time I met you, I agreed with Dad that you were funny.”

“What? When did you say that?” Harsa never remembered Adi saying that.

“Yes. The first time we met, two days after you were born. I remember coming home early from work to see you newborn.”

Jaws down. I'm shaking. “Not. I mean when you came home when I was sick at eight. You came to give papa something and you said I was weird.”

“That was the second time we met, not the first time.” Adi Refusal.

“Yes, but I won't remember you if I'm just born. So for me, the first time we met when I was eight.”

“Stay just the fact we met the first time when you were a baby.” Adi.

Harper was desperate. “Ya already! In the second time we met, why did you say I was ‘aneh’?”

“Well, really for me, you're really weird. You have magic like Kasarewang in general, but at that time you did not have a body that could withstand your own strength. Until you get sick because of it. Isn't that weird? I'm just saying the fact, I didn't mean to offend you.”

“Then wouldn't it be better if you said I was ‘unik’? That ‘aneh’ makes me feel negative!”

Adi's question resuscitated Harsa. It never crossed Harsa's mind that Adi could not speak Indonesian before. “So...” Moreover, awareness of the immortality of Kasarewang sparked another question in Harsa's head. “If Adi has indeed been a hundred years more, why is his appearance still late twenty years? Papa also as the day grows older.”

“That's because Dad purposely changed his appearance every few intervals. I chose this appearance, because my body was in its prime at twenty-eight years old. This body makes it easy for me to fight. If you want, I can appear younger than you.” Adi said the now shrinking resembled a nine-year-old child. “But this way, I can't fight properly.” When Harsa opened her mouth in disbelief, she returned to her original form.

“Then what about me? Can I be like that? I'm half-human half-Kasarewang, how long will I live?”

“Precorded, the half of the longest-living Kasarewang reaches the age of eighty decades.” Adi puts emphasis on the word decade. He continued to speak as Harsa digested this fact. “We, or we, Kasarewang prefers to use decade units rather than years. You will also understand that you have reached the age of ten decades. Unit year too short to count.”

“So sister didn't come home for seven years that's-” Harsa started to understand how Adi perceives time. Maybe like a few months have passed.

“Yes. Like winking an eye.” He said to squint his eyes. “Although I must admit you changed a lot in such a short time.”

“...” Harsa fell silent before letting out a sigh of relief. Now, it seems Adi is more human than usual. “Good, it's all just prejudice.”

“Yeah, actually you are annoying when speaking I can not speak good Indonesian, when I did learn specifically to be able to communicate with you.”

“Sorry about that, but it is a fact that Kak Adi's way of talking is strange.” Harsa laughed, turning Adi's words on herself. “By the way where?”

Adi looked around them. “True too. We haven't come back yet. Can you stand?” ask Adi while shaking hands.

Harsa grabbed her brother's hand, tried to stand up, and failed. No more magic energy escaping from the seal on Kaiya. Surrender, Harsa shook her head.

Adi sighed. “Weird thing requires a strange solution.” Mumbled.

Before Harsa could reply, Adi flicked his finger. Harsa could catch for a moment one of Adi's two rings lit up. Then two separate things happened. First, Adi's slender sword that was plugged into the sand disappeared. Second, in front of them it was as if there was a transparent hood torn out. Behind the transparent hood, you can see the street behind the hotel.

Harsa's forehead wrinkled and her mouth opened in astonishment. “What... happened?”

Adi pulled down Harsa's armpits, dragging her through the transparent hood tear. “We return from the Edge of the Spirit World to the Material World where humans live.” When they were already on the back streets of the hotel in the middle of a lonely night, the transparent hood seemed to repair itself and disappeared. The sensation of Harsa's reality returned to normal. He had returned from the desolate, horrified, and foreign Spirit World Bank. His body again became light and he was able to move as usual.

“World Edge Spirit?” Search Harsa.

“Ya.” Adi replied without any intention of explaining. When Harsa was still looking at Adi full of questions, her brother muttered to himself. “Oh, of course Dad doesn't explain to you where it's the Spirit World Bank.”

“Urgh. Yes, already if you are not the intention to clearin.”

Adi sighed. “Come, just go back to the hotel room.” Said Adi jumping back to the veranda of their room on the second floor. From above he exclaimed, “Wait for what else?”

“I can't jump that high!” shouted Harsa protest. “I'll spin in through the front gate. Brother Adi just open the room door for me!”

Harsa was about to run when Adi stopped her. “Do not! It's free!”

Harsa's eyes probed. “Why?”

“Ehm, the. I-” Even in the darkness of the night, Harsa caught Adi's face flushed like a tomato. “I don't know how to open a hotel door. Not with that card key.”

“HAHAHA! So that's why Kak Adi jumped from the second floor?!” Harsa would not miss the chance to laugh at her brother. “Open it! The door is unlocked from the inside!”

Adi did not think Harsa's words were right. Now he felt even more embarrassed to feel that he was too flashy, full of action. “Urgh. -----------------------.” Adi said to himself in his own language. More or less, he said, “Although he (my brother) is funny, he remains strange.”